How to make a little money (without any catches)

20.03.14

We all need money. Especially as a student it’s not always easy getting by or just having to live without something that would be nice to have but you can’t afford. And most of us have fallen over a “earn money TODAY!” spam-things on the internet at some point, intentionally or not.

Just sell your soul for a million!

But most of it is bullshit. Either is directly a scam or just made in such a way that you’ll never earn enough money or points for anything. Payback search engines, giving you 0,01 kr pr search, maximum 5 searches a day; point sites where you have to sign up for 300 spamming news letters, join 300 “competitions” and “giveaways” – which are all basically a way to get your e-mail, address and phone number – and survey sites that require you to answer surveys for years until you get a 100 kr gift card. Nobody wants that!

But there actually is a few ways to earn money that doesn’t require you to jump through hoops and that actually work. No, you won’t be a millionaire over night but if you’re willing to spend a few minutes each day in the internet, there’s a nice little profit in it for you.

I use a few sites so I’ll of course only recommend what I use and know works! (:

This one is my absolute favorite. You sign up. You watch a few commercials every day. You get paid. That’s it. You get 0,25 øre pr. commercial. Sure, it doesn’t sound like a lot. But with an average of 8 commercials per day, 28 days a month, you earn 56 kr. Just for watching a few commercials! That’s extra 672 kr pr. year to spend on fun! They go to your PayPal and you can either transfer them to your bank account or use them directly from PayPal. I do the last because of eBay 😉

I’ve used Toluna for a few years and it’s only gotten better and better! This is your typical survey site but you actually earn enough to get gift cards. I’ve earned quite a few from them over the years. Just for the past few months I’ve earned one, have another one on the way, and am a very few points away from a third one. They all go to Supergavekortet so there’s a lot to choose from. How many surveys you get largely depend on your profile (as in, they won’t send you surveys about pets or cars if you don’t have any) but you get enough to actually get gift cards, provided that you actually spend the time needed answering them.

This one is a purely Danish “panel” for surveys and works pretty much the same way as Toluna – you answer surveys, get points, and can shop for things in their shop. I always spend my points on gift cards since that’s my favorite thing 😉 but they do have a lot to choose from.

Technically speaking, Freemarket doesn’t earn you money. However, it does let you pick different things to try out, mostly snacks and drinks. The only “catch” is that you have to spend 2 minutes reviewing all the items but seeing as you can choose up to 10 items for free each month, I think that’s fair enough. So far I’ve only ordered once – 2 bottles of soda, 1 energydrink and 5 bags of chips and snacks. And I’m talking brand stuff, like Kims and Cocio. It was delicious!
Since they give things away for free, they’re only letting people in slowly, though. I signed up in November, got admitted in February. So you’ll have to be a little patient if you want to do this one – but I highly recommend it 😉

Those were the good ones. But what about the bad ones? There are many of those but here are some of the more popular, but useless ones.

1) Pointshop

It takes you AGES to gain any points if you only use the free options. If you spend money (e.g. on a “Join ABC Golddigger Game and get 300 points” or through their procent-shopping which is using their link and getting points – if I use their link to BodyShop, I get 20 points for every 1 kr I’ve spent) you always get ripped off or cheated.

I did the BodyShop thing, was told it might take UP to a month before I got the money because they need to manually confirm my purchase. Fair enough. It took me almost three months and a LOT of explaining to their “customer service” that I needed them to give me my points! By the end, she told me she had transferred 400 points to my account after seeing my confirmation e-mail from BodyShop that I bought items for 291 kr.

20 points pr. 1 kr. I got 400 points. According to her, I shopped for 20 kr. I wanted to fucking scream. The stupidity! And I’ve spent over a year collecting points. First of all, they suddenly decided that points get outdated, which we all learned the hard way. Second of all, I’m still almost three months away from getting my first gift card! And even when you get enough points, a lot of people complain about how they don’t receive their things for months and months until you almost threaten to sue them. Can’t recommend this one at all! The same goes for Pointblog and similar, since they’re all owned by the same person.

2) YouGov

They actually have their things straight. It’s just a little too bad that you get SO few surveys to answer and their point shop is SO expensive, it will take you at least a lifetime to earn anything. Again, I’ve been a member for over 2 years and I’ve only recently earned enough points for the shipping! Because yes, you have to pay for the shipping as well! Not recommendable, either.

xxx

The very last thing I want to say is that this is in no way sponsored and those are not affiliate links. I wanted to make the post because many of us are students and free stuff is nice 😉 However, if you would like to help me out, I’d be very grateful if you’d let me invite you to Eovendo and M3 Panel, since I get a bonus out of it. Just tell me in the comments. If not, the links I provided just take you directly to the home pages (:

This is a really great post – I’m always looking for some new ways to make money that way. If you still have my e-mail from when you won the give-away, you are welcome to invite me to M3 panel. I already use Eovendo, that’s where I get my “Ebay-money” from, but I’m a little behind this month, several days without access to the internet kind of does that.

I only have one thing to add – I used Pointshop for several years, and they didn’t always give me points without me having to write to them, but they always came. I used Pointblog and sometimes I bought a VIP-membership and stuff like that, so it wasn’t all gain, but still, when I put it all together I earned 13.500 DKK in gift cards and bought a DVD! 🙂

I think Pointshop would work if they gave you the points straight away, if you use a lot of their paid stuff, like procent shopping. Otherwise it’s simply just not worth it in my opinion since you spend so much time on there without getting anything, using only the free stuff. Like the VIP – you have to be really active to actually get something worth your while. But I’m glad it works for you! (:

I don’t use Pointshop anymore, at all.
There have been way to many deteriorations and members who are there for free – they are not even allowed to write as much as one comment on pointblog. So, that’s it, I don’t need their sh*t. 🙂

I know, that’s why I stopped. I don’t want to pay almost 300 kr to HAVE to write 10-15 times a day in order to gain enough points for it to count.
Good thing there are other – and better – sites out there (:

When life gives you lemons chuck them back and find an adventure, 'cause life isn't waiting for you and you can't wait for life.
I've sworn that 2014 will be the year I take back control of my life, while letting go of it completely at the same time, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the year brings for me.